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UN General Assembly
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), reminded that the General Assembly was continuing in New York. On 24 September, in his remarks to the High-level Roundtable on Climate Ambition, the UN Secretary-General had stressed three urgent priorities: securing a sustainable COVID-19 recovery which promoted climate action; protecting economies and societies in line with what science told us; and prioritizing the most vulnerable people and communities. The Secretary-General’s remarks can be read here. On 12 December, an important climate event would be jointly organized by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Accord, and ahead of the COP26, which had to be postponed to November 2021.
45th Human Rights Council
Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), said that today at 10 a.m. the Council had heard from its Advisory Committee on several topics. Soon the Council would hear from High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet on the human rights situation in Venezuela; her statement would be shared with the media after the delivery. A general debate on the country’s situation would then commence, with 60 countries and 100 NGOs scheduled to speak. A discussion on the human rights of indigenous populations would also take place later today. It was also a deadline for draft resolutions that would be considered during the final days of the session; currently some 38 draft resolutions were expected. On 28 September, the Universal Periodic Review of 12 countries would commence.
More information on the HRC schedule can be found here.
COVID-19 and seasonal influenza
Dr. Ann Moen, Chief of Influenza Preparedness and Response at the World Health Organization (WHO), said the WHO was helping Member States with preventing and treating respiratory illnesses, including influenza and COVID-19. The influenza season might place an additional burden on already stretched health systems. On average, between 290,000 and 600,000 people died of seasonal respiratory influenza. The measures recommended by the WHO were all very important for avoiding both flu and COVID-19. There were a lot of ways to prevent flu and care for flu patients. The five priority vulnerable groups for vaccination, according to a 2012 WHO guidance, were: pregnant women, individuals with underlying health conditions, elderly people, health workers, and children. This year, however, under the current circumstances, experts had identified health workers and older people as the top risk groups. WHO also encouraged people to listen to the advice of their local and national authorities about the prioritization of vaccines.
Almost all the influenza vaccines being used now had been ordered before the COVID-19 pandemic, because supplies were normally ordered long in advance. WHO was working with its regional offices and industry partners to provide additional vaccine quantities where needed. The mentioned prioritization should be taken into consideration if there were short supplies.
Dr. Moen stated, responding to a question, that the safety profile is well known and if there are side effects they are generally mild. There were no studies that a flu vaccine would be effective against COVID-19; the target groups for flu and COVID-19 vaccinations could overlap. Dr. Moen stressed that influenza vaccine procurement was a lengthy process that could last up to 12 months; for example, countries in the Southern hemisphere were now placing their orders for May 2021. October was the right time to be vaccinated against influenza in the Northern hemisphere; the WHO was recommending that people get vaccinated as soon as the vaccines were available, said Dr. Moen. Different countries had different plans, some prioritizing certain groups at risk, others vaccinating entire populations.
Geneva announcements
Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), informed that Cartier, one of the world’s leading luxury brands, had joined the Lion’s Share Fund, a ground-breaking initiative to tackle the crisis in nature, biodiversity and climate. Led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a coalition of businesses and UN partners, the Lion’s Share was an innovative financial mechanism to raise over USD 100 million per year within the next five years to halt biodiversity loss and protect habitats by asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal was featured in their advertisements. Some 20 per cent of ads globally featured an animal, said Ms. Bel. UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner and Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier, would brief the media today, via Webex, at 6 p.m. Geneva time.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that on Monday, 28 September at 4 p.m., there would be a hybrid press conference on the publication of the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 - Tackling Illicit Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa. Speakers would include Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General, and Paul Akiwumi, Director of the Division on Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes. The report would be embargoed until 28 September 2020 at 7 p.m. Geneva time.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would open its virtual 68th session on 28 September, at 4 p.m. The only other public meeting planned for this session would be the closure meeting, on 16 October, at 4 p.m.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances would not close today (as initially planned) its 19th session but only suspend it, to allow the dialogue with Iraq (which had been postponed) to take place on 5 October (12:30 to 2:30 p.m.) and on 7 October (4 to 6 p.m).
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (85th session, 14 September – 1 October) would hold its next public meeting for the closure of the session, on 1 October at 5 p.m.
Mr. LeBlanc informed about the inauguration of Tempus, the temporary conference facilities, at UN Geneva on 29 September at 12:30 p.m., in the presence of the UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya and Switzerland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Jürg Lauber.
Mr. LeBlanc also reminded that 26 September would be International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons; 27 September - World Tourism Day; and 28 September- International Day for Universal Access to Information.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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